EBay has sold its Enterprise business to a consortium of private equity firms led by Permira and Sterling Partners for $925 million, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The e-Commerce marketplace also plans to complete the spinoff of PayPal, which will take place July 17.
The Enterprise business sale is expected to close in 2016, and will enable eBay to focus on its core marketplace business. In January, eBay revealed that is was exploring a sale or an IPO of the division, and laid off 2,400 employees amidst a poor Q4.
EBay initially acquired the unit in 2011 for $2.4 billion, when it was known as GSI Commerce. The Enterprise division develops online shopping sites for brick-and-mortar retailers such as Ikea, Pet Smart, Sports Authority and Timberland.
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The e-Commerce company announced the sale in its Q2 2015 financial release, posting revenues of $4.38 billion for the Q2 2015and profits of $83 million.
Notably, eBay’s gross merchandise volume, which is the amount of sales it helps facilitate, fell 2% to $20.1 billion, though the company indicated it would have been up 6% without the impact of currency fluctuations.
